Perception
Perception…
• It is a unique interpretation of the situation,
not an exact recording of it.
• It is a complex cognitive process that yields a
unique picture of the world.
• It may be different from reality.
Perception
In the context of OB, this can be considered as a filter at
the individual level.
The Bottom Line:
“Recognition of the difference between this filtered,
perceptual world and the real world is vital to the
understanding of organizational behaviour.”
Eg.: Assumption by managers that all subordinates
want promotion.
Sensation V. Perception
• Sensation refers to the process of sensing our
environment through five senses:
Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch and Taste
• Perception is the way we interpret these
sensations and therefore make sense of
everything around us.
Sensation V. Perception
• Sensation provides the raw data;
• Perception through cognitive processes and
filters interprets and tries to make a meaning
out of it.
• Eg.: Childhood experience of travelling by
train.
Perception…
• Stimulus or stimuli
• Past Experiences
• Pre-conditioning
• Comprehending and Reasoning Ability
Social Perception…
• The most relevant to the study of OB is social
perception.
• It is concerned with how one individual
perceives other individuals.
• It is about how we get to know others.
Social Perception…
Characteristics of the Perceiver:
Knowing oneself makes it easier to see others accurately.
One’s own characteristics affect the characteristics one is
likely to see in others.
People who accept themselves are more likely to be able
to see favorable aspects of other people.
Accuracy in perceiving others is not a single skill.
Social Perception…
Characteristics of the Perceived
The status of the person perceived will greatly
influence others’ perception of the person.
The person being perceived is usually placed into
categories to simplify the viewer’s perceptual
activities. Two common categories are status and role.
The visible traits of the person perceived will greatly
influence others’ perception of the person.
Perception: Learning…
• The importance of caution in judging other people.
• The wide spread differences between judgments,
that no two people see the same thing in the same
way.
• The significance of the mechanism of projection -
the tendency to see in others qualities which are
really part of ourselves.
Perception: Learning…
• The importance of two-way communications, including
plenty of active listening.
• Mental set - we see what we want or expect to see.
• The value of empathy, and the effect of lack of
empathy.
• The rigidity of snap judgments – “I could see right
away that he . . . “ or “The only way to do it is...”
Perception: Learning…
1. Women are intellectually superior than men;
2. Women are emotionally stable than men;
3. Women are inherently more compassionate
than men;
4. Women value achievement, promotion and
meaningful work more than men;
5. Successful managers possess feminine
attributes.
Stereotyping – A Few Examples
Perception: Learning…
Stereotyping:
Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group
to which that person belongs – a prevalent and often useful, if
not always accurate, generalization.
Tendency to perceive another person as belonging to a single
class or category.
Frequently used term to describe perceptual errors.
Profiling
– A form of stereotyping in which members of a group are singled
out for intense scrutiny based on a single, often racial, trait.
Perception: Learning…
• The Halo Effect
– A person is perceived on the basis of one trait.
– Is a common rater error.
– Has both true and illusory components.
– Has led to inflated correlations among rating
dimensions and is due to the influence of a
general evaluation and specific judgments.
– Has negative consequences and should be
avoided or removed.
Perception: Learning…
Horns Effect
• It is opposite of halo effect.
• Here in, an individual is downgraded because
of a single negative characteristics or incident.
• For example an individual is not given
promotion because he lacks self confidence.
Perception and Individual Decision Making
The Rational Model
Bounded Rationality
Intuition
Rational Decision Making
A decision making model that describes how individuals
should behave in order to maximize some outcome.
Steps:
1. Define the problem
2. Identify the decision criteria
3. Allocate weights to the criteria
4. Develop the alternatives
5. Evaluate alternatives
6. Select the best alternative
Bounded Rationality
Herbert Simon, an American Political Scientist
proposed bounded rationality in his book
“Models of Man” in 1957;
He won Nobel in 1978;
He states that we base our decisions on our
limited knowledge and cognitive capacity;
Bounded Rationality
Beyond limited knowledge and cognitive
capacity, time limits also play a role in our
decision making;
Thus, there are three things that bound our
decision making process – limited knowledge;
cognitive capacity and time limit.
Eg: Organic Food; Sustainable Supply Chain
Bounded Rationality
“A process of making decisions by constructing
simplified models that extract the essential
features from problems without capturing all
their complexities.”
Reason
Our inability to assimilate all the information
necessary to optimize and arrive at a decision.
So?
Bounded Rationality
So what we do is: try to Satisfice
Satisfice: “decide on and pursue a course of action
that will satisfy the minimum requirements
necessary to achieve a particular goal.”
Oxford Dictionary
We seek solutions that are satisfactory and sufficient
(“good enough” in our estimation).
Intuitive Decision Making
It is an unconscious process created from
distilled experience;
It occurs outside conscious thought;
It relies on holistic associations;
It is fast and affectively charged – it engages
emotions;
To make it acceptable, we need to test it out
using objective data and rational analysis.
Perception and Managerial Implications
People act based on how they view their
world.
What exists is not as important as what is
believed/perceived.
Managers must also manage perception.
Concluding Thought
“Reality is not important; perception is!”
Would you agree?
Think about it!
Concluding Observations
“When Peter talks about Paul, we learn more about
Peter than we do about Paul.”
-Spinoza
“He who knows others is clever, but he who knows
himself is enlightened.”
“I observe myself and so I come to know others.”
-Lao Tze
Thanks a lot!
